Jayandra Menon, Perth – Senior Australian defence officials are worried that the Bush administration's war on terrorism is being exploited by some of its "supposed allies" for their own domestic political gains.

Indonesia and Malaysia have drawn praise from Washington for joining in the war against terror. But Australian officials say both countries are using the war as a screen for domestic political crackdowns while doing little to combat terrorism, according to a commentary in the Los Angeles Times.

"They worry that President Bush is being sold a bill of goods by some other supposed allies in the region," said Mr William Arkin, a noted military affairs analyst and author of the commentary.

It quoted a former Australian intelligence analyst as saying that "some of the evidence from Malaysian and Indonesian security agencies appeared to have been manufactured for domestic political and diplomatic purposes".

"The emphatic anti-terrorism policy" pursued in Washington was exploited by the security services "to justify draconian steps against alleged terrorists, thereby running the risk of alienating an already sceptical Islamic community", said Mr Greg Fealy, who is now a research fellow on Indonesia at the Australian National University.

"People being arrested in Malaysia are just part of the Islamic opposition," another analyst was quoted as saying.

Mr Arkin said Australian officials also believed that Washington was not taking advantage of Canberra's insight into the region, gained from its long association with predominantly Islamic neighbours.

He said that many officials believed Mr Bush – and American leaders in general – were in the habit of looking to Australia for troops and diplomatic support but not for analysis and advice. "They think Washington takes too little advantage of this insight," he said.

Mr Arkin, a former US army intelligence analyst who has written extensively about military affairs, spent a week with the Australian Defence Force recently.

He said senior Australian military leaders resented what they saw as an imperious US attitude but were frustrated by the fact that any kind of open break with Washington was unthinkable.

He wrote of strained relations between the defence forces and the government of Prime Minister John Howard, who has displayed unquestioning support for Mr Bush.

"I worry about Mr Bush going over the deep end," one of Australia's highest-ranking military officers was quoted as saying in the commentary.

The officer recalled Australia's costly participation in the Vietnam War and drew a blunt parallel with its mechanical political allegiance in the war on terrorism. "I'm not sure 'All the way with LBJ' is best for the nation," he added. LBJ refers to former US president Lyndon Baines Johnson who was responsible for the sharp escalation in US involvement in Vietnam.

The Los Angeles Times commentary was published on Sunday even as Mr Howard was telling reporters in Washington that Australia's alliance with the US was "far and away our most important".

Mr Howard, who is in the US to make up for an official trip cut short last year by the September 11 terror attacks, yesterday became the first Australian leader in 14 years to deliver a joint address to Congress. He is due to meet Mr Bush today.